RIYADH, 16 April 2005 — The Sri Lankan Consulate in Salama district in Jeddah will move on Wednesday to a spacious location in Sharafiya district close to its community school.
“The new place is strategically located in the heart of town, in the vicinity of the community school, and in proximity to Sri Lankan settlements,” Sri Lankan Consul General and Ambassador designate A.M.J Sadiq told Arab News.
To mark the opening of the new building, Sadiq will host a celebration for members of the community Wednesday morning and the same evening he will receive members of the diplomatic corps, government officials and special invitees at a reception at the new consulate premises. All community members have been invited to the morning function. Students of Sri Lankan International School will stage cultural programs to mark the occasion.
Sadiq hopes to accommodate stranded maids in a safe house within the new premises. He claimed that he had enormously reduced the problem of runaway maids. “Hardly two or three people come in a week which is a negligible number considering the size of the Sri Lankan maid population here,” Sadiq said.
Some 350,000 Sri Lankans live in the Kingdom, one-fourth of them in the Western Region.
which comes under the purview of the consulate.
The Sri Lankan Embassy was established in the Kingdom in 1983, while a consulate was established in Jeddah in 1997 with Ali Sabry as the first consul general. Subsequently, a Saudi mission was set up in Colombo in 1993 with Abdullah Al-Zahrani as charge d’affaires. Eight years later, the mission was upgraded to ambassadorial status with Mohammed Mahmud Al-Ali as the Kingdom’s first ambassador in Colombo.
